SPEAKER_00 0:00

What I love the most is that both of us have backgrounds that are all abortion, even though the executive council has nothing to do with abortion. Yeah. Except they hate it. And so they don't want to approve contracts.

SPEAKER_03 0:12

Right. They think they have something to do with abortion.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

They think they don't. They think they do. So we put as many posters as has been the arguments they've made that make no sense. That's how many posters are behind us. It's an audio podcast. Nobody can see them. But they're there. But they're there. Right. And I'm also wearing a shirt that has the word abortion on it. Gotta represent. And And because I only have three shirts and they're all Planned Parenthood. It's fine. And only one tie. And only one tie. That's right. For the cost of one cup of coffee a day, you can make sure Liz Canada has a different pink tie to wear to the state house. Become a

SPEAKER_03 0:43

supporter of the show and you can buy Liz a new tie.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

With your Patreon subscription, you could get Liz a new tie. Just one more tie. Look, I'm happy to put the photos. You're asking for a lot. I know. I'm happy to put the photos of me from multiple days of testifying with just the same tie. I have two jackets. Let's be

SPEAKER_03 0:59

real. Not days, Liz. as years. Years.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

It's like the hair gets grayer, but the tie stays the same. The

SPEAKER_03 1:06

hair gets grayer, but the tie stays the same.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Over the course of time, it's so true. I'm just weathered. The tie, nevertheless, persists.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

That sounds like the tagline of the show in general.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

My God, I'm so weathered from these issues.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

New Hampshire has issues, and

SPEAKER_00 1:21

they have weathered us. And they have weathered us. You're listening to New Hampshire Has Issues, and I am your host, Liz Canada, talking to you from the future and like the far future. When Kayla and I recorded this episode, it was like smack dab in the middle of summer. And boy, oh boy, has a lot changed since then in our society, the vibes. I wore a tie to work the other day and felt like weird getting out of my car wearing a tie. So I hope this episode brings you a little joy. That's really the goal. Yes, by the end of the episode, if I offered you a dollar, I would hope that you know one executive counselor's name. But really, I hope you enjoy this and that it brings you a little bit of laughter. If you would like to support the show, you can go to patreon.com slash nhhasissues. There's also a link in the show notes for that. This episode is generously sponsored by Seacoast Soils. You can find their information in the show notes as well. Thank you for listening. And I'll pass it back over to me. So we're not here to talk about abortion, even though the posters and my shirt say otherwise. We are here to talk about something that everyone is extremely familiar with, as far as I'm aware.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

Something that every single Granite Stater is like, I know exactly what that means when I hear the executive council.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Oh yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

This is sarcasm.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

We love sarcasm. This is sarcasm. Kayla, you're a fan favorite of the show. It's so fun to be here. People have been writing into the show for months saying, get Kayla Montgomery. Well, I think you're a fan favorite because no one knows the executive council, tragically, better than you do. Tragically. Tragically. Tragically. We have been talking about the executive council, what feels like nonstop. And still, it seems nobody knows what it is. And part of that is because it's so unique to New Hampshire. And part of that is that they are a little bit shrouded in mystery. It's very different than what's happening in other ways in the statehouse. But it is not, in fact, the term. knock of the down the executive council despite how hard we have tried I

SPEAKER_03 3:39

think we've knocked on every single door in New Hampshire to talk to people about it but turns out they're not listening

SPEAKER_00 3:44

I love when we knock on a door and then I say hi my name's Liz yada yada yada and then I say so have you heard of the executive council and then the look of panic on the person's face I'm like I'm not here to quiz you you're not in trouble I'm not I'm evangelizing I'm evangelizing to you to bring you into the fold anyway I really want to just ask people on the street for a dollar. Name any executive counselor. Name anyone. For a dollar. For a dollar.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Can you tell me what the executive council is?

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Past or present. Just name an executive counselor. Past or present. Name any of them and I will give you a dollar.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

You would have a lot of dollars left in the pocket. You'd have so many dollars left in your pocket you could afford a new tie.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

What are we doing with all these dollars? Well, we're asking people in the great state of New Hampshire, what is the executive council? Oh boy. Okay, so I am your host, Liz Canada. Welcome to New Hampshire Has Issues, the podcast that dares to ask, what the f*** is the executive council? I'm tired of not cursing while I talk about it. I'm sick of it. I'll bleep it out. But what the f*** is the executive council? Everyone else is asking it. Why not me? What the f*** is it? Kayla, what's your tagline? You are actually right now. I am. I am. I am asking it now. All right. What's your tagline? What do you have for the show?

SPEAKER_03 4:52

Well, Liz, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm so glad you're back. Welcome back. Yeah. I mean, it's like I never left. Welcome to New Hampshire Has Issues, the podcast that dares to ask maybe we We should take a little peeksy at what the New Hampshire Executive Council is and why we have it. A little looksy. That's kind of a long tagline.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

It's a little long, but let's take a little peek under the hood of the Executive Council.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

First and last in the nation.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

So I have a few questions for us to cover with the hopes that we actually answer them in an amount of time that I can actually publish an episode and that people can actually understand what the f*** the Executive Council is. So let's start with your history. What brings you to the executive council conversation how did you get roped into being on this podcast episode besides that you that you asked to be on it but other than that what brings you to the executive council conversation Kayla

SPEAKER_03 5:45

yeah that's right a couple weeks ago when we were filming one of the first the first episode here I said and I hope maybe we can talk about the executive we didn't have time to talk about the executive council but I was like maybe I'll come back for that not thinking that I actually would but here we

SPEAKER_00 6:00

are here you are it's true that's a long time ago be well and told to do it yeah So here we are. That was four months ago. Was it really? Four months ago, I hate to tell you. Yeah, four months ago. Time

SPEAKER_03 6:09

flies when

SPEAKER_00 6:09

you're talking about the executive council. And that's why this face is as weathered as it is. That's where the grays come from.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Okay, so I have the distinction of going to executive council meetings pretty often over the last few years, decade. Decades. Decades. Let's be honest. And really experiencing that interesting form, that uniquely New Hampshire form of government for myself firsthand. Been through some stuff with the Executive Council. Did go into labor once. Oh, how did that go? So there was that. That was a weird day. I didn't, I just should clarify, I did not give birth in the Executive Council chambers, but you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

If you had, more people would know what the Executive Council is. Totally. That's on you, see?

SPEAKER_03 6:53

So do you want to talk about what the Executive Council is? Yeah, I want you to tell me what it is. Okay, well, the New Hampshire Executive Council is uniquely New Hampshire, as is most things in about new hampshire it is a five member elected body so you a voter will vote for your executive council every two years in the same way that you vote for governor for state senate for state representative so yeah we do in new hampshire of course we vote a lot

SPEAKER_00 7:18

we vote a lot we love voting we love to vote it's our favorite thing to do elections yeah totally

SPEAKER_03 7:24

so they are on your ballot they're actually right under governor because they're a part of the executive branch so they're really like high ranking officials in the state of new hampshire But people just haven't heard of it. So there's quite a lot of history to the Executive Council, which I don't necessarily need to get into details. But I do think there are some important pieces about how we got here because people don't know what the Executive Council is. And part of the reason people don't know what the Executive Council is is because New Hampshire is the only state that has this type of government, this type of executive branch. So it is kind of interesting if you're into that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Unfortunately, I am. Yeah. So to recap. Five people make up the executive council. In New Hampshire, everyone has one executive counselor, and we vote on them every other year in the even-numbered years, just like we do with governor, just like we do with the state senate, just like we do with the state house, just like we do with our U.S. representatives. Exactly. And they're a part of

SPEAKER_03 8:25

the executive branch.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Right, and they're a part of the executive branch. So they're not

SPEAKER_03 8:29

making laws.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Right. They're not lawmakers. Right, they are not lawmakers. despite what they might think about themselves. They do not make laws in the executive council. Why do we have this? Where does it come from? What's the deal with the executive council?

SPEAKER_03 8:47

So I am not the state historian, although that is a very cool job. And I think the state historian could probably really get into this.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

I haven't reached out to the state historian. Well, you should. That's a fair point. Maybe I should have done that. But I've asked you instead to give me the history of the executive council. All right, we'll do a very brief timeline because it's kind of a lot. Perfect.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

So back in 1679. Throwback. Rewind is 1679.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Okay. That's where it all began. So when you said brief timeline, I'm glad that we went right to the 1600s. This

SPEAKER_03 9:20

is where our story begins.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Our story begins before the foreman of the United States. We are in the executive council world. Okay. Yeah. Oh

SPEAKER_03 9:28

yeah. We are in, we are, we are back. We are, we are way back. You know, there's a lot of indigenous people. people in New Hampshire, right? But it's the first time that the white folks have come in. And King Charles II of England was over there doing his thing in England.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

We are so far back in history that we are before the king who was featured prominently in the musical Hamilton. Just to be clear, we are before Hamilton. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

Zero days since Liz talked about Hamilton. Okay. Musical theater. Okay. Theater. Musical theater. Okay. So at that time, Massachusetts and New Hampshire were one. Oh. Believe it or not.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Oh. So is it that they masked up New Hampshire or did we New Hampshire up mass? What happened?

SPEAKER_03 10:13

That's a great question. Yeah. Yeah. That's also a different podcast. Yeah. That's a different episode. Well, what's interesting is if you read some of the history of this, the people who were like separated from Massachusetts were really pissed about it. Like they loved their relationship with Massachusetts. So they were not happy about this separation. So don't mask up New Hampshire. But like some would say we had a pretty good thing going on. And

SPEAKER_00 10:33

that's true. A few years ago. It has some positive attributes to it. All right. I'm taking a controversial stance. I mean, sure. But

SPEAKER_03 10:40

again, that's a podcast for another day. Another

SPEAKER_00 10:43

day. Another

SPEAKER_03 10:43

day. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

We can ask somebody else to come on to talk about massing up New Hampshire. I'm sure there are some people who have strong opinions. I don't know. I don't know who. I don't know. I've never heard of anyone.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

So anyway, the King of England was like, we got to form some, we don't have a government yet. So let's just come up with some plan here. And so he made this council and this council was reporting back what was going on to the king because obviously the king's not there and kind of reporting back on like the governor although it wasn't a governor yet and then you know the Revolutionary War comes so that that's a whole thing that happened and we

SPEAKER_00 11:16

that's another musical 1776 could bring that

SPEAKER_03 11:20

up we could I think you did you

SPEAKER_00 11:22

know what's happening right now is there is an incredible Jesus Christ superstar that's Cynthia Erivo from Wicked is starring as Jesus Christ

SPEAKER_03 11:28

I've heard you've heard so we're because you've told yeah

SPEAKER_00 11:33

so we're after the happenings of jesus christ superstar before hamilton but now we're in act one we're in the

SPEAKER_03 11:38

hamilton moments so obviously no more governor i mean no more king we have a governor no more king

SPEAKER_00 11:44

the king is yeah i remember that in the musical

SPEAKER_03 11:46

but we sort of held on to that distrust of like we we i mean we the collective we in new hampshire and so we continued with like the council to not just like not to report but to keep the sort of checks and balances system so like the governor couldn't have too much power they had this council that they have to report to so it's like a class New Hampshire distrust. So I'm going to read this line from the history of the Executive Council because I think it is absolutely fascinating and it says basically everything you need to know. Let's hear it. The New Hampshire Executive Council holds the distinction of being the first and the last of its kind in the nation. It is a vestige of the colonial era and a public reminder of the continuing indication of the basic distrust that Granite State citizens have for dictatorial government.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Yeah, so... That's a lot.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

That says a lot

SPEAKER_00 12:32

about Granite State. You're telling us We don't like dictators.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

That's exactly

SPEAKER_00 12:36

what we're saying. It's baked into our history of the executive council. That's very interesting that as a state, we have this executive council because we don't like dictators. Fascinating. It's fascinating. Yeah. Interesting. Timely. Timely. And yet so old. First and last. It's a good phrase. First and last. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

So we're

SPEAKER_00 12:54

going

SPEAKER_03 12:54

to

SPEAKER_00 12:55

fast forward

SPEAKER_03 12:55

all the way to 1850. And actually, Liz, what's interesting is that in 1850, this is where our story is going to end.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Okay. Our story is going to end in 1850. 1850, but we're in 2025. Okay. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

All right. Yeah. Weird, huh? 1850, there's a constitutional convention. What is a constitutional convention? Oh, Liz, that's a whole other topic.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

It's also in Hamilton, so you can listen to Act II and listen to the constitutional convention. Okay, we

SPEAKER_03 13:17

do not have time to get into what a constitutional convention is. It's a bunch of people getting together and figuring out the constitution. Should I just perform the whole thing? Yeah, you should. I don't think that could be on podcast, though.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Yeah, I'll probably get sued by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It's fine. It's on Disney+. You can go watch it. Okay, Franklin Pierce. So, Franklin Pierce.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

You know him. Not personally. We all know him. But yes. No, he wasn't ranked very high as being a good president, I would say. But some would say he was extremely handsome.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Who? You? So, you know. Are you saying that? Should I quote you on that? Yeah. Yeah. Franklin Pierce, totally handsome. He's extremely handsome. Extremely handsome. Quote Kayla Montgomery.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

Bit of a drunk, good abolitionist. Okay. Not a very good president. Right. Anyway, he was the governor. Pluses and minuses. A lot of roses and thorns here with this guy. Totally. Right, right. He recommended at the Constitutional Convention that we get rid of, that we abolish the Executive Council. This was in 1850. Okay. And the people of the convention were like, how? no like absolutely not and Liz it has never been revisited since 1850 so

SPEAKER_00 14:20

that was the end okay so Franklin Pierce took a big swing and a big mess and he whiffed it

SPEAKER_03 14:25

okay all right and nobody has been like since then since 1850 has been like well should we examine this no one has even like brought the question

SPEAKER_00 14:34

well I feel like we bring the question almost every day in our office yeah well no one's

SPEAKER_03 14:38

listening to us

SPEAKER_00 14:39

apparently but now we're on a podcast and people will listen to us

SPEAKER_03 14:42

we're listening to each We've

SPEAKER_00 14:44

been shouting through each other about this and we decided to bring it on the air with microphones.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Right. So there's been like little tweaks, you know, little tweaks in like the way. But like basically, yeah, it's this group that is the check and balance on the governor and we elect them. They're elected officials. And that is the way it's the only one in the country that works like this. And

SPEAKER_00 15:04

here we are. So the checks and balances on the governor. How does that even work?

SPEAKER_03 15:08

The governor in states obviously have a lot of power. So and everything works a Every state's going to be a little different. That's the beauty of how this country operates. Every state's going to be a little bit different and every governor is going to have a little bit different sort of job description when they're elected. So in some states, the governor can just can choose their commissioners. Whereas in New Hampshire, your commissioners and judges all have to be approved by the executive council. So the governor can make recommendations, but the executive council, the majority. So you have to get three votes in order to have their nominations approved.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

So So the governor nominates someone. A recent example is the commissioner of education. Governor Ayotte nominated Caitlin Davis and the previous commissioner of education, Frank Edelblut, was nominated by Chris Sununu, then governor of Chris Sununu. So the governor nominates the commissioner, but that's not the end of the process. The governor doesn't get to make that choice on their own. The executive council, those five people have to, by a majority vote, approve that nomination.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

Exactly. So it's for like commission heads and also for judges in new hampshire because in new hampshire we don't elect our judges

SPEAKER_00 16:17

right so three is the magic number you need three is the magic number you got to get to three got to get to three so got to find three of the five because three is a majority of five people wow tell me more about this math so the magic number is three to approve nominations by the governor so the governor nominates commissioners and you just said the governor nominates judges as well every judge in the state is by nomination by the governor and then approve by the executive council so the magic number is three

SPEAKER_03 16:47

and then they also the executive council also will approve or deny contracts over ten thousand dollars so this is where Planned Parenthood comes in ding ding here we are ding ding Planned Parenthood yeah and also lots of like lots of groups and so there's obviously a lot of money that comes from the federal government like a lot of money the executive council has this big job of approving or denying these contracts a lot of them are like really standard like you know just kind of like housekeeping like you know the money's coming in for Or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Money comes in for Medicaid.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

Yeah. Yeah. Money comes in for a lot of things. Safety and education and... Federal money to repair bridges. Yep. Bridges and roads. They approve or deny. And a lot of times it's just like standard. It's just sort of like, you know, this is just a sort of a housekeeping. But then some things get really politicized. Right. And some things become sort of areas where the executive council has made a point to... deny some of those contracts that come in just based on their politics and Planned Parenthood contracts has within the last few years become one of those contracts that has been politicized and that even though we're doing all the right things and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England is being awarded this money they're just choosing to deny it based on political reasons even though you know these contracts began coming to the state back in 1972 and they've always had always been accepted and then over the last couple years all that has changed.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

1972 being a hundred plus years after the Constitutional Convention, where it was like, should we rethink this executive council? Well, the ramifications arrived. So when you say contracts, that word alone is, it's kind of boring. So what is, let's talk about what the contract is for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, for example. Yeah, paperwork. What is the contract? Like, what is it? Because you said that Planned Parenthood of Northern New England was awarded the contract, but didn't get the money. So what is the contract? So talk a little bit more about that.

SPEAKER_03 18:46

Back in 1972, we're doing a lot of history here in this one. So much. So back in 72, it was Richard Nixon, another president with some issues.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Positives and minuses, once again.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

This was a positive. What he did was a positive. So they set up the Title X Family Planning Program, which is a program to help elevate the middle class to get birth control, cancer screenings, reproductive health care into the hands of low-income women. And this is a program that was wildly successful. Still is wildly successful. And still is. It is money to help the community health providers be able to give birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, essential reproductive health care, to be able to give those services to people who otherwise can't afford them. So if a person comes in and they're like, I really need birth control, but I only have $5, then these providers providers say absolutely no problem like we'll still give you the birth control there's no refusal of any patient just because they can't afford this service and so the federal government is like thank you for doing that because this is really important for community health and so here's some a little bit of contribution to help pay for that it doesn't like cover everything that's for sure because there's a lot of need out there but it's just a little bit to help the cost of providing this care for low cost or sometimes just for no cost this is money that never goes to a It's just for these essential preventative reproductive health care. There's a federal law that prevents the money from going to abortion. That's called the Hyde Amendment. That's been around since 1973. So long time separation of these funds. It's always been that way. The money never gets mixed up together. That just can't happen. Traditionally, the federal government has been giving some of that Title X money to the state of New Hampshire and then different vendors, different community health providers who are able to do this work will then apply to the state and then the state will say yeah like because you do this much you're going to get this much money because you do this much you get so like there's lots of different sometimes there's six different providers sometimes there's 11 different providers whatever it's like whoever is applying that year so the state makes their recommendations of who should be receiving this money and how much money and then the executive council will approve or deny that

SPEAKER_00 21:10

by a majority vote by

SPEAKER_03 21:11

a majority vote

SPEAKER_00 21:12

need three people

SPEAKER_03 21:13

we've historically seen unanimous support of these contracts it was just sort of like housekeeping for decades and then for the first time ever since we were in the program by we I mean Planned Parenthood of course since Planned Parenthood was in the program the first time we ever saw a contract a standard contract be denied was in 2011 was the first time and then since then we also saw it in 2015 then counselor Sununu one time rejected the contracts. And then fast forward to 2021, they've been rejected every year since. So that was a much speedier timeline than my original history of the

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Executive Council timeline. Cancer screenings, STI testing, STI treatment as well, birth control, and no money can or does go toward abortion from these contracts. And these contracts are stopped by the executive council because they are, they're the wall or the bridge between the federal or state funding, between the family planning funding, and getting to the providers. And because these folks hate abortion so much, four of them, they voted against reimbursing providers. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 22:46

Keeping our communities safe and healthy. you know, life-threatening. If you can detect cancers early, if you can stop the spread of STIs early, if you can get people the preventative birth control that they need in order to be able to plan, prevent, and space their pregnancies, they are healthier people. We create healthier families. We create healthier communities. All of these things are critical and everyone deserves it. Whether you can afford these services or not, you still deserve to be healthy. So this is community providers doing a really, really important work out there for individuals, but also for the state of New Hampshire, and for keeping us all healthy, our communities healthy, and public health care trending the right way.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

I want to play a clip from an executive council meeting where they took up the family planning program contracts. Specifically, I want to play Counselor Wheeler asking a question about the providers who are currently in the program. And all of the providers who are currently in the family planning program do not offer abortion care, none of them, because Because the council has voted against those contracts every time since 2021. So, let's listen to Councilor Wheeler. Let's.

SPEAKER_04 24:22

So, under these contracts, can these family planning agencies refer, can they refer women for abortions? So, the

SPEAKER_05 24:33

claims themselves cannot perform abortions. That's noted in the letter. We have a litigation solicitation to them to attest that they do not perform or abortion services, we don't have direct insight into their client relationships. Obviously, we do not have any more

SPEAKER_04 24:51

information to do so. Can they refer, when a woman comes in pregnant, can they say, here's your options? So they can provide appropriate clinical care? We don't have direct clinical decisions? I understand that. Can they refer a woman to Planned Parenthood or some other So,

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Counselor Wheeler wants to know, do women get all the information when they go to these health centers? They're

SPEAKER_03 25:22

given the full range of information about their health, like anyone

SPEAKER_00 25:29

should be. He's saying it in a really mean way, is how it sounds to me. Yeah. Like, ugh, are these women getting the information about abortion?

SPEAKER_03 25:39

Right, like, does a man get all information? And then

SPEAKER_00 25:47

what does he do on those contracts? He votes them down. He votes them down, right. Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. You know, not to give it all away, but he votes against the contracts even for health centers that do not offer abortion care because they are not abortion providers. He doesn't... But they're offering information. Yes, he does. Right.

SPEAKER_03 26:07

God forbid we give people information about their health. But they're

SPEAKER_00 26:11

offering

SPEAKER_03 26:11

information... Accurate

SPEAKER_00 26:13

information. Medically accurate information. We talked about what the executive council does. We talked about commissioners. We talked about judges. We talked about contracts. And we've talked about how people don't know what the hell it is. That's the big one. Who decides who becomes an executive counselor? How does this happen? How do we get into this, dare I say, this mess? Yeah, well. And I say mess because we have a council that includes four people who are, and I feel like they're pretty comfortable saying that they're anti-abortion. or at least four people in the previous administrations that have voted down these contracts, even though the contracts have nothing to do with abortion. So, you know, four people who are like, they will not approve contracts for providers who offer health care to everybody who walks in the door. We will not do that because they also offer abortion care. We have four of them and only one who's like, this is good for public health and for the community. So Kayla, how did we get here? What happened? Don't take me back. Don't take me back to the 1600s I might fall over

SPEAKER_03 27:44

that's where I was

SPEAKER_00 27:44

I'm so sorry I know

SPEAKER_03 27:46

so it would say that like the people decide because they have a vote so you go to vote in your general election and you vote for your executive council or just the same way you vote for the governor but unfortunately we have this little problem in New Hampshire with the executive council called gerrymandering

SPEAKER_00 28:04

gerrymandering Liz what is gerrymandering gerrymandering so you know that I'm terrible with geography and math You are. Historically. I am woefully unaware of where I am at any given moment.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

Sometimes you don't even know you're in Concord. It's alarming.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

I have made the wrong turn walking back to our office from a coffee shop that has zero turns. I've gotten lost getting back. Like

SPEAKER_03 28:30

more than once. It's really, really bad. Liz, you're good at a lot of other things, but geography is not your strong

SPEAKER_00 28:36

suit. I'm good at some things. Pluses and minuses. Yes, right. Roses and thorns, baby. So, Jared. So in a state, everybody votes for the governor and everybody who's registered to vote in New Hampshire votes for the governor, right? So if you live in New Hampshire, if you are a registered voter, you can go and vote for who's going to be the governor. The executive council, there's five of them. So there are five sections of New Hampshire that are broken out. And depending on where you live is which district you are in. It's the same with Congress, right? Like we have two U.S. House representatives. We have what's called congressional districts. District 1, CD1, and you have Congressional District 2, CD2. So depending on where you live, you vote for one or the other, you know, you vote depending on where you live. So for the Executive Council, you take the map of New Hampshire, and they have these districts that are, you know, the five districts. And the issue, the gerrymandering specifically, is that the people who drew these maps, which exist for 10 years, you get 10 years of the same map, the people who drew these maps put a whole bunch of Democrats in one of of the districts. And they drew the maps because they looked at all the numbers of registered voters, I assume. And they said, I don't know if they said it out loud, but maybe they did, but they put a whole bunch of Democrats, Democratic voters in one of the districts. And the other four have a whole bunch of Republican voters, registered Republicans. So even though our state is pretty evenly divided, I would say, I feel like we're a truly purple state of about half of the folks vote Democratic, half of the folks vote Republican. It swings a a little bit this way, that way. But because of how the map has been drawn, it is gerrymandered in that it is not really fair. A lot of the votes for Democrats go into only one district, and that makes it so that the executive council is kind of stuck for four Republicans and one Democrat. That was a very long explanation.

SPEAKER_03 30:33

No, but I mean, that's the truth. And there's the numbers that bear that out. You can look at the elections and look at the gross number of people who voted for a democrat for executive council is in some cases the majority and yet only one democrat got elected so like that's just that's you can see it's like clear clear as day right there i do think it's really also important to note that the contracts for family planning and the contracts that were awarded to family planning providers who also provide abortion have been bipartisan for many many years right um for decades for decades it was just just Republicans on the executive council. And they were always passed unanimously. And then in more like recent times, we've seen Republicans who also voted for these contracts. Chris Sununu a couple times voted for them. Russell Prescott, when he was an executive counselor, he voted for them. So it's not like just because you're a Republican, you're against these. In fact, history would say the opposite, that these traditionally have been nonpartisan, noncontroversial, just really critically important. That's a really great and important

SPEAKER_00 31:59

point. Historically, it's been a bipartisan support of these contracts because they saw the value. They saw that the providers who offer this preventative sexual and reproductive health care were doing a significant amount of service to the state for public health in the state of New Hampshire. So providing these contracts helps them to be able to provide that health care. And then it became, go ahead. The people who have voted

SPEAKER_03 32:22

against it have said, well, other providers will step in. Other providers will step in and do the work. And guess what? Years have gone by and no one else can step in because Planned Parenthood and these other community health providers that also provide abortion play such a critical role. And they are experts in sexual and reproductive health care. And not everyone can say in certain IUD, like same day abortion. not other providers sort of have the the background in this really critical work around sexual reproductive health so other providers can't just step in like it's it's us it's it's Planned Parenthood Northern New England and it's independent providers of sexual reproductive health who are the ones that are doing this work and people can't just step in that's a big you can't just fill that hole

SPEAKER_00 33:02

I wish I had the number in front of me I'm like desperately looking for it I can't remember if it was 2020 it must have been 2022 the election of 2022 where Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Democrat was elected. And that's gerrymandering. That is gerrymandering, plain and simple. That you've drawn maps that put a specific group of people all in one district so that they cannot have the power of their vote in the other districts. And yes, executive council used to, in a bipartisan way, approve contracts and have discussions. And now it has become extremely politicized for just personal beliefs, fundamentalism, far-right beliefs. It's transformed what the executive council is it's because of the gerrymandered maps that don't get changed until after the 2030 election

SPEAKER_03 34:21

so maybe it's time to take a little peeksy at the executive council yeah i'm not saying we should abolish it i am not saying that because there is something uniquely new hampshire about it no i'm saying but maybe but maybe we should just like explore it a little bit you know like just i don't know just like look at this is this still what we want to be doing because we haven't looked at it in a few years since 1850.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

175 years. Thank

SPEAKER_03 34:49

you for doing that, Matt.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

You're welcome. There are no executive counselors on the council now who were around in 1850. This is a

SPEAKER_03 34:58

very old state, but not that old.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Yeah, I feel like it would be a great time to take a look-see. So much of it is there has to be a better understanding of the immense power. Well, Liz, you could knock on more doors. I cannot. I physically can't knock on any more doors to talk about the executive council. An important part is letting our friends and family and neighbors know what this weird little thing of five people does. Enormous power. It has enormous power. If they decide who our judges are, they are or are not going to approve that nomination. And we're just not going to move forward until you bring someone we like and whose ideologies we agree with. They could do that. They don't have to justify their decisions with data or research. They can just not do something.

SPEAKER_03 35:43

Or they could choose to reject a contract from the federal government for COVID relief funds that went to really critical vaccines for folks. And they could just reject that outright. They have that power. And put the state of New Hampshire back a couple of weeks in the process just because they didn't like it.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

They have that power. That has happened. That has happened. They could say things that make absolutely no sense. such as i think that you can just show up at a pharmacy and get an abortion pill whenever you want to and that's why i'm voting against this thing it's like none of that is true the things you just said are not true right and there's nobody to stop them there's nobody who could be like actually we just did a fact check and that's a million pinocchios no they have that ultimate power

SPEAKER_03 36:37

yeah and i mean that's also a great example because that has happened and even when, say, the commissioner of HHS has said, actually, medication abortion and emergency contraception are not the same thing, but turns out they don't care.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

The commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services can stare at these counselors all day, and still, the counselors will still say the same things that are not true. They are made up, or they are given these talking points from folks who hate abortion so that they just repeat them, and there's nothing that can stop them from saying those things and then voting a certain way because they said them. Nobody stopped them, except for voting them out.

SPEAKER_03 37:17

You know who can stop it, though?

SPEAKER_00 37:19

Who?

SPEAKER_03 37:19

You.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

Oh, yeah, me. Oh, listener, yes. But it makes it really difficult when the maps are gerrymandered. And it's interesting that there is a state senator who wants to redistrict the congressional seats, which are not gerrymandered, but doesn't want to think about the executive council, which for sure is. We have a Is he running

SPEAKER_03 37:45

for

SPEAKER_00 37:50

something? gerrymandering. That is explicit Stealing of Seats by Gerrymandering and by Redistricting. And we have it here in New Hampshire with our Executive Council. It's happening here. Thank you for coming on the show.

SPEAKER_03 38:24

Thanks so much for having me. It was really fun to talk about the Executive Council.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

I will come up with more musicals to talk about, not just Hamilton, not just Jesus Christ Superstar. Although it's excellent. She's an incredible Jesus. I am sure that there are people in this country who are not thrilled that she is playing Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 38:39

Well, those people probably don't even know that this is something that they could watch. So

SPEAKER_00 38:44

don't tell them. It's important not to tell them. All right. Well, I'm going to take my weathered face and go off into the wild. Thank you for being on the pod again. What do you want to come talk about next time? Do you want to quiz me on geography?

SPEAKER_03 38:55

Well, no, because you'd fail. And I don't want to do that to you.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

I know. I saw an old Liz talk from the first year that I started doing them, and I look like a different person. I'm so young and

SPEAKER_03 39:17

fresh-faced. I know. When I first started here, I didn't have two children, so I looked like an entirely different person when I began at Planned Parenthood.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

The office looks exactly the same as it has for approximately 20 years.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

Non-profit life.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

Non-profit life. We have two printers. One works. The one that does not has a yellow streak when we print. Anyway, this is a great ask for donations. If you wanted to sponsor a tie, go to patreon.com slash to sponsor maybe a new printer. www.ppnhaf.org. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Exactly.